CAMINOS 2015 – Programming Announcement
October 2, 2015
Aluna Theatre is proud to announce the complete line-up for CAMINOS 2015.
“…a quintessentially Canadian approach to the classics – one that isn’t about a nebulous idea of diversity, but simply emphasizes the individuality of the performers.”
-Kelly Nestruck (on Blood Wedding), Globe and Mail ***/4
Aluna Theatre
in partnership with Native Earth Performing Arts presents
CAMINOS
The Pan-America that lives here.
A week-long festival of Pan American performing arts & culture on stage November 3 – 8, 2015 at Daniels Spectrum
Following a record season that included nine Dora nominations for two major productions, and six wins for their co-production of Blood Wedding | Bodas de Sangre with Modern Times, Aluna Theatre is thrilled to announce the inaugural CAMINOS. Presented in partnership with Native Earth Performing Arts. This new festival runs November 3 – 8, 2015 in Native Earth’s Aki Studio and in Ada Slaight Hall at Daniels Spectrum (585 Dundas St East).
CAMINOS is a week of new propuestas (performance proposals) from some of the most exciting panamerican voices working in theatre and dance. CAMINOS explores the Pan-America that lives here in Toronto. Each evening features performance experiments and a lively exchange of ideas and new works from Rosa Labordé, Carmen Aguirre, and Aluna’s Bilingual Ensemble, as well as Irish-Australian-Colombian Walter J. Broderick performing his adaptation of Beckett’s First Love.
“CAMINOS is our way of inviting audiences to re-imagine the Americas, or more concretely, to see themselves as part of that re-imagining. In the arts we tend to look at ‘the old continent’ as our reference point, but we, as Canadians, play a key role in the cultural, economic and social vibrancy of our hemisphere,” said Aluna Artistic Director Beatriz Pizano.
“Exploring a number of rich cultural heritages and how they breathe, develop, and transform in Canada is an exciting proposition – Propuesta can in fact be translated as a proposal, an act of suggesting, an offering, an overture. The coming together of this plurality also breeds new ways of creating and presenting theatre and performance.”
Each night of CAMINOS features a different offering. Nightly presentations include works-in-development, presentations on translation by Aluna’s Bilingual Ensemble and our popular late night cabaret programming on Friday and Saturday nights. Tickets are sold for the entire evening of programming, and are $15 for Tuesday-Thursday nights, $20 for Friday and Saturday night (including the Cabarets), and a weeklong festival pass can be purchased for $50.
The festival also features scheduled conversations on translation and cultural interpretation with artists, social innovators, and academics, and presentations on approaches to translation by Aluna’s Bilingual Ensemble. The discussions about translation are part of Aluna’s Interpretation Lab, a year-and-a-half long experimental workshop exploring how to break the barriers of language – through image, action, technology, and translation.
The festival is programmed and produced by Aluna Theatre’s Beatriz Pizano, Artistic Director; Trevor Schwellnus, Artistic Producer; and Sue Balint, Producer.
Programming and schedule:
Staying Alive
Creator / Performer: Martha Chaves
Director: Beatriz Pizano
A tale about love, loss, death and survival. When a daughter gets news about her
mother’s illness, she takes the long way home after many years of estrangement. Tuesday, November 3rd, 8:30pm.
Primer Amor | First Love
Translated and adapted by Walter J. Broderick from a short story by Samuel Beckett
Performer: Walter J. Broderick
An old man tells of how, at the age of twenty-five, he was expelled from his home on the death of his father and obliged to live rough. On a park bench he meets a woman who takes him to live with her. In Spanish with English surtitles. Wednesday, November 4th, 8:30pm.
Marine Life
Playwright/Director: Rosa Labordé
Dramaturg: Guillermo Verdecchia
Performers: Fabrizio Fillipo, Nicola Correira-Damude, Scott McCord
Lighting / Set Design: Trevor Schwellnus
Sound Design: Thomas Ryder-Payne
An environmental activist dedicated to improving the state of marine life finds that her personal life and relationships both threaten and echo her seemingly straightforward mission. Labordé offers another look at this work in progress. Thursday, November 5th and Friday, November 6th, 8:30pm.
Carmen Aguirre’s Broken Tailbone
Playwright/Performer: Carmen Aguirre
DJ: El Machetero
Director / Dramaturg: Brian Quirt
Producer: Rupal Shah
Daring, sexy and fun, Broken Tailbone is a window into the hidden world of Latin American dancehalls, through the eyes of celebrated writer and performer Carmen Aguirre. Carmen leads a public Latin American dance lesson, woven together with hilarious and moving stories. Commissioned, developed and produced by Nightswimming. Saturday, November 7th, 8:00pm.
Perdida
Creator / Performer: Lilia Leon
Perdida (‘lost woman’ in Spanish) reveals the journey of a woman who must excavate herself in order to find her path. Through dance, theatre and live music, Perdida explores ancestral memory and the feeling of being lost between cultures. Tuesday, November 3rd, 8:00pm.
The Stones Project
Creators: Anita La Selva & The Stones Ensemble
Lead Creator / Director: Anita La Selva
Performers: Tosha Doiron, Roshanak Jeberi, Lilia Leon, Katelyn McCulloch, Michelle Polak, Roula Said
A layered, multi-disciplinary approach exposes a world of images and rituals. The Stones Project explores the practice of stoning in our global culture. Wednesday, November 4th, 8:00pm.
Morir de Pie | Die Standing
A devised theatre project by the company
Director: Sebastian Marziali
Performers: Kristina Abbondanza, Khadijah Robert-Abdullah, Andrew Burke, Pooria Fard
Sound Design: Sina Shahrestani
When is enough, enough? A satirical and corporal examination of the moments that push us towards revolution and what awaits us on the other end. Thursday, November 5th, 8:00pm.
Ayelen
Writer/Director: Gilda Monreal
Performers: Ximena Huizi, Ohm, Lido Pimienta, Marcelo Arroyo
Set and Costumer Design: Shalak Attack, Bruno Smoky
Makeup: Shalak Attack
Lighting Design: Andre du Toit
Creature Sound Production: Shalak, Fiya, Cito
Music: Brandon Valdivia
Stage Manager: Solange Ribeiro
Production Assistant: Bertha Lee
Dramaturg: Rosa Labordé
Back after its smash SummerWorks 2015 success. Ayelen is a survival story set in the midst of mining exploitation. The only way to find peace is to confront darkness. Friday, November 6th, 7:00pm.
Cacao
Director / Choreographer / Dancer – Victoria Mata
Collaborative Creative Director – Rehana Tejpar
Percussionist / Composer – Y Josephine
Cacao is a dance-theater-drumming interpretation of a young girls’ journey home to Venezuala. Curiosity, history and secrecy lead her to the sacred teachings of Cacao, the bean of chocolate.
Friday, November 6th, 8:00pm.
Cabarets
Friday, November 6th, 9:30pm and Saturday, November 7th, 9:00pm
Stay with us late at the festival for a drink and a dynamic showcase of music, dance, burlesque and performance work. Featured artists include: Dainty Smith, Joe Recinos, Camila Diaz-Varela, Nico Contreras, Y Josephine, Shandra Spears, Ximena Huizi and the PRESENCIA Music Project featuring Ruben Esguerra, Brandon Valdivia and Jorge Cantor.
Conversatorios – A Conference
Saturday, November 7th, 1:00 – 6:00pm
Demonstrations and conversations about accessibility of theatre through language, technology, and alternative approaches to creating work. Includes a look at Cahoots Theatre’s current work, Ultrasound, with deaf artists; a Cree language scene exploration from Tomson Highway’s Rez Sisters, and conversations with translators and academics.
Intertribal Gathering
Sunday, November 8th, 3:00pm – 4:30pm
The Indigenous Performing Arts Alliance (IPAA) is proud to showcase Ontario artists creating performance in their language. Join us for a celebration of Indigenous language in performance to close CAMINOS 2015 and usher in the Weesageechak Begins To Dance Festival. This event is PWYC.
Website: caminos.ca
Get social: @AlunaTheatre | #alunaCAMINOS
Ticketing
Evening tickets $15 (Tues-Thurs) or $20 (Friday & Saturday) available at nativeearth.ca/CAMINOS2015
Full week passes $50 available for purchase by telephone at 416-531-1402 (limited quantity, through Nov. 1)
Evening tickets give access to all programming for that day. Cabaret-only tickets available for $5.
Box Office: 416-531-1402 or boxoffice@nativeearth.ca
Location
Aki Studio and Ada Slaight Hall, Daniels Spectrum (585 Dundas Street East)
About Aluna Theatre
Aluna Theatre is an artistically driven Canadian / Colombian theatre company based in Toronto. We create exciting new work that introduces audiences to diverse and rich performance practices from across the Americas. Aluna’s bold productions in English and Spanish are marked by a distinct theatrical language drawing from our heritages, cultures, and languages, including dance, physical theatre, and a multi-media design. In twelve years of production, Aluna has received 26 Dora Award nominations for acting, writing, directing, and design – and has won eleven awards. Artistic Director: Beatriz Pizano.
About Native Earth Performing Arts
Native Earth Performing Arts is Canada’s oldest professional Indigenous theatre company. Currently in their 33rd year, Native Earth is dedicated to creating, developing and producing professional artistic expressions of the Indigenous experience in Canada. Through stage productions (theatre, dance and multi-disciplinary art), new script development, apprenticeships and internships, Native Earth seeks to fulfill a community of artistic visions.